Editing North Adams, Massachusetts (section)

===Sprague Electric===

Later that year, the [[Sprague Electric|Sprague Electric Company]] bought the former print works site. Sprague [[physicist]]s, [[chemist]]s, [[electrical engineer]]s, and skilled [[technician]]s were called upon by the U.S. government during [[World War II]] to design and manufacture crucial components of advanced weapons systems, including the [[atomic bomb]].

With state-of-the-art equipment, Sprague was a major research and development center, conducting studies on [[electricity]] and [[semi-conducting]] materials. After the war, its products were used in the launch systems for NASA's [[Project Gemini|Gemini]] missions, and by 1966 Sprague employed 4,137 workers in a community of 18,000. From the post-war years to the mid-1980s, Sprague produced electrical components for the booming consumer electronics market, but competition from abroad led to declining sales and, in 1985, the company closed operations on Marshall Street. Its closure devastated the local economy. Unemployment rates rose and population declined.<ref name=spraguereflects>{{cite news|last1=Dobrowolski|first1=Tony|title=John L. Sprague Reflects on Past, Present Economy|url=http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_23336429/john-l-sprague-reflects-past-present-economy|access-date=July 22, 2014|work=BerkshireEagle.com|date=May 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726131219/http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_23336429/john-l-sprague-reflects-past-present-economy|url-status=live|archive-date=July 26, 2014}}</ref>